Though Mahesh Bhupati, Shvetha and other family members took great pains to deny any "special relationship" with Lara Dutta when questioned by media persons, after reports of link ups between the two surfaced almost a year ago, senior sources in his own organization had some juicy gossip to share that seemed to agree with the time-tested adage: 'there can't be smoke with fire".
You know drivers, peons, office boys, secretaries, receptionists and such people in an organization may not be on Twitter, but their inputs definitely help.
A source within Globosport (the artiste and celebrity management company that Mahesh runs) told us that Mahesh Bhupati and Lara Dutta may be readying their own private and top secret 'Love Nest'.
While we were unable as of today to in any way clarify or verify this so-called information and in all honesty must leave it for now as only gossip, if this bit of news does turn out to be true, remember we told you first.
Meanwhile both Mahesh Bhupathi and Shvetha Jaishankar have gone into damage control mode. We suggest that Mahesh Bhupathi gets some new spin doctors. It's no use trying to put out a fire that you yourself helped light, right Mr Bhupathi?
Shvetha told daily newspaper DNA today, "Although I would not like to delve into my personal matters...I wish to clarify that the reference to me filing for a divorce is false. There is no question of differences arising over my role in the company."
Meanwhile Shvetha refused to comment on her relationship with Mahesh's sister Kavita, saying that she was not liable to discuss family matters with the press.
Apparently, both Shvetha and Kavita were keen on playing a key role in the organization, resulting in ego clashes and personality differences. All this while Mahesh was busy elsewhere and had no time to rein in the warring family members.
Editor of Savvy magazine, Andrea Costabir stuck to her story of the irreconcilable differences between Mahesh and Shvetha, saying that the marriage was definitely headed for Splitville or the rocks of Remo.
We tried hard to contact Lara Dutta and finally tracked down her personal assistant's number, but when her assistant was told that it was regarding Mahesh Bhupathi she hung the phone on us. We wanted to ask her why she dropped Dino Morea like a hot potato when Bhupathi showed sudden interest in her almost a year ago.